Completely Random Thoughts 17: Road March 2010

So yeah. That’s a wrap - Carnival 2010. All of the big trucks have gone . . . Wherever the hell they go. All of the feet are happy as the jumping has ceased, as are the wrists as they no longer have to wave. The last drop of mud has been rinsed away and, essentially, we have heard every good song there is to have been heard in 2010. It was beautiful in many ways, spectacular in many others and to literally millions of people, yours truly included, the 2010 season has offered many memories which will NEVER be forgotten. The year also gave us many undeniably HUGE tunes and after focusing so much, for most of the year, on the tunes and performers which took to the stage and won (or almost won) Soca Monarch titles, I thought that I’d take it to the road and give a brief recap and take on the Road March Champions of 2010.

{And I’m only dealing with the heavy stuff, but biggup Big George ANYWAY}

TRINIDAD

‘Palance’ by JW & Blaze

Yep. It’s ‘Palance’. I should now be VERY comfortable in giving my opinion on what turned out to be a RIDICULOUSLY MASSIVE tune from two radio guys who’d seemingly just been hanging out, year after year, content with being radio guys and decent part-time Soca artists, but I’m still not totally sure. On one hand, there were certainly better tunes in just about every single aspect but, on the other, ‘Palance’ just became this big fucking force of a tune and powered it’s way not only to a Road March crown, but a Monarch crown and a tune on Beyonce’s set list as well. So, my final review of the tune is to not hate it, it was most certainly ridiculous, but as someone whose ‘workout’ mix has the tune mixed in no less than four times (out of ~ eighty different songs), I’m certainly not one to talk about not liking the madness that was ‘Palance’.

Next Best??? The easiest of answers here is what the answer seems to always be these days - Fay-Ann Lyons’ tune. That tune however, ‘True Lies’, was COMPLICATED as hell, it was literally two or three different songs packed into one. My next thought was Bunji Garlin’s ‘Brave’, but . . . Yeah, Bunji’s tunes, while lyrically SO on-point and perfect Road March songs, in theory (see last year’s ‘Clear De Road’ as well), they work so much better on a stage, all the time. And, of course, there was upstart BUFFY, who had a tune in ’Anything’ which seemed made specifically for the road, but was ultimately probably too lyrical. That left me with the tune which actually finished a distant third in Trinidad Road March as it’s next best choice, Machel Montano’s increasingly solid ‘No Behaviour’. Say what you must about easily one of the genre’s most controversial figures, but the man can make nearly masterful ‘jump and wave’ tunes without much effort. It clearly wasn’t one of his best, but DAMN, it was STILL a big ass song.

ST. VINCY

‘The King Road’ by Maddzart

Maddzart proved this year that he could actually win a Road March title and he also proved that he didn’t have to go COMPLETELY insane to do it, as this is PROBABLY a case where the single best tune of a region went on to win the big crown (despite my biases) . ’The King Road’ isn’t this big crazy construct of insanity. It’s not necessarily ’groovy’ just yet, but it is closer to that than Skinny Fabulous’ ’Duracell’, which was crazy energized (no pun intended) and took Vincy Monarch. What the midtempo piece was, however, was absolutely PERFECT for the road and, regardless of region, you’re going to have an incredibly difficult time making the case with me that this isn’t one of the biggest tunes of 2010, period.

Next Best??? You know that I so much want to say ’Scary’ from Skinny, I LOVE that tune, but it isn’t right for a Road March. I less like ’Duracell’, but for what it was it’s better than ’Scary’ for the road. Still, I think that the second best choice in SVG would’ve been Problem Child’s most ridiculous and damn MOODY, ’Delinquents’.

ST. LUCIA

‘Pas Mele’ by DJ HP

St. Lucia Soca is pretty fucking strange and cliquish and I’ll stay away from the Ricky T - 758 drama (so as to not make myself look even more like a damn fool) and instead focus on a tune from the previously pretty unknown DJ HP, ’Pas Mele’ [’I Don’t Care’]. This tune is just SO infectious. Seriously, if you can get to that chorus (and it doesn’t matter if you like Soca AT ALL) and not find yourself literally or in your head singing along “pas mele, pas mele”, something is fucking wrong with you! I found myself liking it more and more with the more that I heard it and I’m still enjoying it a lot these days, so the fact that it seems to, in very palance-like fashion, have caught FLAMES in St. Lucia is, in retrospect, no surprise at all.

Next Best??? Guess what? Thinking back, there were some pretty good tunes for St. Lucia Carnival this year. The performances (at least the ones we saw), were pretty bad for the most part, but the actual studio tracks, were very good (hell, I even liked ‘Bomb Song’ from Kakal). Of course the first thought is Ricky T’s ‘Cyah Stop It’, which was nice, but much less than his previous heavy tunes. Actually Ricky T’s kind of zany ‘Ok There’ might’ve also been a choice, strictly based on comedy of course. But my choice goes actually to Ricky T’s little brother, Ambi, whose tune, ‘Push Dem’ is not only one of my personal favourites, but is lyrically PERFECT for a Road March tune to my ears.

GRENADA

‘Tornado’ by Otis

MAD! When I first heard this tune I remarked at how much of a WONDERFUL piece it would be on the road with its kind of instructional marching type of set. I imagined literal big ass circles of people jumping down Spice Mas. Little did I know, however, just how popular it had become and how much of a forgone conclusion that it would take not only Road March, but also Soca Monarch, dethroning Mr. Killa. I still don’t think Otis' ’Tornado’ is a great Monarch tune, but as for the road, SERIOUSLY, a great argument could be made that it’s the most fitting winner here. “Get in a circle and FORM A TORNADOOOOOOOO!”

Next Best??? I have no idea. It’s interesting because the song that I would automatically think of, Mr. Killa’s ’See Dem Fly’, was obviously made special for Soca Monarch (he even says “Soca monarch” in the lyrics) and it wouldn’t be too great for the road in my opinion. HOWEVER, retaining all of my ridiculous biases, the next best choice in my opinion would be another Mr. Killa tune, the sickness that was ‘De Whole Place’.

BARBADOS

‘Foot On Fire’ by Blood

For some reason, it took me quite some time (and flat out difficulty) to set my ‘Foot On Fire’ and begin to start appreciating this tune. Probably because, at least to me, it has a very noticeable old school vibes to it (not very old school, think Soca ~ 2000) . . . And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. This extremely straight forward tune (and Blood in general this year), just did big things in Barbados this year and again, there’s nothing wrong with that so biggup Mr. Blood and set your foot on fire. Yeah YOU.

Next Best??? If ‘Neighbour’ wasn’t eligible (and it might’ve been), then the next best choice, CLEARLY, was Edwin Yearwood’s wicked ‘Chrissening’. This tune: I LOVE. I’ve loved it from the first second I heard it and have ever since and that’s a pretty rare occurrence for me in regards to a Yearwood/Krosfyah tune. It is pure madness from beginning to end and it would’ve been my choice, but again, biggup Blood every time.

ANTIGUA

‘Bullbud’ by Burning Flames

And lastly - I only mention this one for the sake of posterity, because in matters of Antiguan Road March, each and every year, it’s a guarantee that the winner will be the ‘Flames’. Either the Burning Flames or the Red Hot Flames, each and every year will win. This is so, despite the fact that it isn’t like they have no one else (more on them in a second), but the art of making Road March tunes in Antigua has obviously been perfected by the Flames and after two years of Oungko and the RHF taking the title, ‘Bullbud’ returned Onyan and the BF to win their . . . 578th Antiguan Road March. This song isn’t my favourite, probably because I hear that same horn sound that goes back to last year with the Gutter Riddim. But apparently I’m pretty damn alone in that respect because almost everyone I’ve spoken to about it is in LOVE with it including, apparently, Wadadli massive.

Next Best??? There were a few very good candidates in this category. First of all, I’d be fucking up if I didn’t mention ‘Woottup’ The Red Hot Flames’ effort. I like it more than I enjoy ‘Bullbud’, but not by much. There was also Tian Winter’s ‘Hurricane’ which netted the singer his second consecutive Soca Monarch crown (biggup Tian Winter) and Claudette ‘CP’ Peters’ WICKED power Soca tune, Earthshake (a lot of natural disasters this year). But, my choice would’ve been another CP tune, the gorgeous pan infused ‘Dung Dey’. Of they had absolutely no chance, but the hope is that maybe Peters and Winters (and maybe even Tizzy!) can somehow come together to make some big piece of water tune, thus extinguishing the Flames on the road in 2011!


In Closing: Just a couple of interesting things that I noticed - The first being that no women took Road March in the big spots this year (although I think Vanilla did win again in Guyana). Last year, of course, there was Fay-Ann (and Vanilla) and Lyons again in 2008 (and Miney also in Grenada), but none this year. Also, of the six, four of the tunes also took Soca Monarch, respectively and (from the top of my head) last year there would’ve been three. There also isn’t any common thread to be seen here, not even for my over analytical eyes, just to say that every island and every region has their own style and so much so, in fact, that I can rather comfortably suspect that if you take these winners and transport them to a next place and do so with a local artist as an original tune, I don’t even think that most of them would PLACE in the top three somewhere else (with the exception probably being ‘Tornado’).

As for me, I have to say that, in general I REALLY enjoyed Soca 2010. My own favourite from this list??? It’s floating somewhere between ‘Pas Mele’, ‘Tornado’ and ‘The King Road’, but probably closest to the ‘Tornado’ at this point (ask me tomorrow, it‘ll probably change). But August is already half over and December nears when we’ll get started again and shit - I CAN’T WAIT until jump up day, jump up day, jump up day . . .